Underdog and advertising overlords

Good evening,

Never fear…you know who is here.”

Well, I’ve got to hand it to the marketing masterminds at Disney. They have a finely tuned and well funded promotional team at work for them.

My point of reference is the just-released movie Underdog. I’m in my mid-40s and remember this show on Saturday mornings when I was a kid. That was back in the late 1960s and early 1970s. Since then, the only time I saw or heard of Underdog was an ad that used to run in the back of Rolling Stone or other similar publications featuring a rumpled Underdog character on the front of a t-shirt or sweatshirt.

Now, here we are in 2007 and I’ve got a 5-year old son who is leaping with his favorite stuffies, saying, “Underdog is here.” It isn’t just playing it once or twice, he does this several times during the day, or at least says that line. This isn’t even taking into account how animated he gets when those movie trailers come on television.

Where has he heard about Underdog if the cartoon hasn’t been running on the regular kid vid channels? That leaves only the heavy media blitz Disney has been using to promote this film. And, smartly, they have been running the ads on not only the kid channels like Disney and Nickelodeon, but also on about any other local outlet they could buy advertising space from, which means most of them.

Don’t get me wrong. I think the movie sounds like a fun romp and I want to make sure I’m with the little dude when he goes to see it. I’m just seeing how Disney has resurrected an old Saturday morning cartoon with a likeable character and given it a new and, most notably, live action representation to build a whole new following for Underdog.

I don’t know how much the advertising budget was for this movie, but it was no doubt in the millions, as they have really saturated the television channels with the various trailers of the movie. I also feel certain that they will see a big return for the advertisement investment. If this movie scores big at the box office, which I predict it will, I’d say we’re in for more Underdog movies. Who knows, they might already be filming the sequel as you read this, just banking on the success of the initial launch.

The bottom line is this, if you invest heavily to build a name and have the bucks to fund the onslaught of advertising it will take to do this, you can probably bank on success. Add to this that when you work to bring about loyalty fueled by the patronage of the parents with familiar ties to the character, then you could probably make and sell anything that strikes the nerve of fond, nostalgic reminiscence.

Underdog marketing is not alone. Austin can easily sing along with other familiar jingles that have bombared his young mind. One of his favorites is a Dodge truck ad that says, “Bigger in Texas, better in a Dodge.” When that ad’s opening sounds play, he will jump up and say, “Daddy, our song.” I don’t recall when that became our song, but it no doubt has become such. I have also noticed him chiming in with the “Thanks, By Owner” ads.

The above examples are just more proof of what advertisers know very well. Kids minds are like sponges. Throw something at them that appeals to them and they are going to remember it. And, when it comes down to it, these kids are going to grab mommy and daddy by the wallet and head out to find the product.

OGV

Six Man, Texas: More than just a movie

Good morning,

A unique aspect of the Friday Night Lights in Texas is the small stage, namely six man football.

If you’re like many and unfamiliar with six-man football, let me share a bit with you. In small communities where they don’t have the enrollment to sustain a typical team with 11 players on each side of the ball, there remains a designation that allows for a school to have a six-man squad. In Texas, there are more than 100 such schools. It is a unique slice of the pie where the play and rules vary from the norm. First, many of the kids play on both sides of the ball out of necessity. Secondly, these games are frequently very high-scoring events with final scores resembling basketball scores. Finally, the specific
rule variations
are very different than what you are used to with conventional high school football.

Two rule variations that exist in six-man that stand out to me are: The field is typically 80 yards long instead of the standard 100; and, teams must advance the ball 15 yards in four downs to get a first down, instead of the usual 10 yards.

My reason for blogging about this today is that I just read about an upcoming movie, by Texas-based NEVERTOOLATE Films, about six-man football in Texas called, aptly enough,
Six Man, Texas.

I’ve been to one six-man game in my life and I’ll never forget it, even though it happened more than 14 years ago. It was in Silverton, TX up in the panhandle, where I was visiting with a couple of good friends. It captured the spirit of what the game is all about, and from what the film’s web site leads me to believe, exactly what the film is depicting.

The movie’s web site offers the following two paragraphs to describe the film:

“Although there are many similarities among the more than 120 Texas towns whose small public high schools play Six Man Football, the film highlights the story of two schools, Three Way School in the far western region of the South Plains and Aquilla in Central Texas. Both schools are metaphors for Texas' shrinking rural economy.”

“The film focuses on public schools because they are such a vital part of small-town culture. At one time in America, public schools were the backbone of the educational system; in Six Man towns, they still are. The film highlights the many similarities among the towns whose small high schools play the game. Those similarities seem to create a community of towns united by their common priorities, the school and a passionate commitment to their children. It is as if there exists a state within a state, the state of Six Man, Texas.”

Oh, and if you need another reason to check out their web site, there is a link titled “Free Stuff” that will get you just that for the asking. I clicked on the email link to ask for mine and was surprised that it was for Alan Barber, the filmmaker responsible for the project. I quickly wrote out my request and included my memories of the game I had witnessed in Silverton and how the sense of community was as obvious as the smaller team size. An even bigger surprise in this day of impersonal, corporate dominance was that I had a reply later that day from Mr. Barber himself thanking me for sharing my personal reflections. He also said they were considering creating a blog about the film and passing along some people’s stories and memories about six-man football. So, check out the site, send in an email and share your story if you have one as well.

As a big fan of Texas high school football and with the warm memories of my one six-man game, I can’t wait to see what the film has to offer.

OGV